News and Events
Building Trust in Digital Repositories Using the DRAMBORA Toolkit
Pre-SOA Conference Workshop:
Building Trust in Digital Repositories Using the DRAMBORA Toolkit
27 August 2007, 11.00-16.00
The Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/drambora-belfast-2007/
Running from 11.00am to 4.00pm, this practical tutorial will provide a contextual overview of the need for an evidence-based evaluation of digital repositories and offer an overview of the DCC pilot audits to date. The tutorial will then move on to demonstrate how institutions can make use of the DRAMBORA toolkit to design, develop, evaluate, and refine new or existing trusted digital repository systems and workflows. This will involve a walk-through of the toolkit sections with practical examples based on the pilot audits. Participants were encouraged to draw upon and share their own experiences during this discussion. Participants will receive a hard copy of the various DRAMBORA worksheets to take away with them so they could begin to assess their own repositories and workflows or start developing their own repository system.
This event is being held in cooperation with the Society of Archivists (SoA) Annual Conference. The SoA conference entitled 'Differing Directions: Challenging Communities' tackles many of the important issues regarding the future of archives. For more information on the conference, please see: http://www.archives.org.uk/thesociety/conference2007belfast.html
Benefits of Participation
This course will enable attendees to:
- Comprehend the concepts of trust with regards to digital repositories
- Recognise the need for evidence-based evaluation for building trust in digital repositories
- Understand how the DRAMBORA toolkit can be used to help design and develop systems and workflows that can help build trusted digital repositories
- Obtain skills needed to undertake a thorough assessment of digital repositories using the DRAMBORA toolkit
- Appreciate the range of staff and skill-sets required to implement and sustain a trusted digital repository
Intended Audience
The intended audience for this event is anyone involved in funding, supporting, developing, implementing, and/or managing digital repositories.
Registration
Registration fees are £30 for DCC Associates Network members and £60 for non-members. http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/drambora-belfast-2007/register
Instructor
Andrew McHugh, Advisory Services Manager for the DCC since 2004, leads a world-class team of digital curation practitioners in offering leading-edge expertise and insight in a range of issues. His most recent work at the DCC has involved leading its work in trusted repository Audit and Certification. Andrew also lectures on multimedia systems and design on the MSc in Information Technology run by the Computing Science Department at the University of Glasgow
TASI Workshop Programme for September to December 2007
TASI (Technical Advisory Service for Images) has just released details of its new training workshops for September to December 2007. http://www.tasi.ac.uk/training/
If you cannot make it to a scheduled TASI workshop, TASI now offers most of its workshops 'on demand'. Training is available for individuals or groups at its facilities in Bristol at a time that suits you. Find out more at: http://www.tasi.ac.uk/training/on-demand.html
The full scheduled timetable is as follows:
* Thursday 6th September 2007, Bristol
Rights and Responsibilities: Copyright and Digital Images
* Friday 7th September 2007, Bristol
Beyond Google: Strategies for Finding Images Online
* Tuesday 11th September 2007, Bristol
Colour Management
* Friday 21st September 2007, Bristol
Scanning from Print
* Wednesday 3rd October 2007, Bristol
Digital Photography - Level 1
* Thursday 4th October 2007, Bristol
Digital Photography - Level 2
* Thursday 18th October 2007, Bristol
Building a Departmental Image Collection
* Thursday 1st November 2007, Bristol
Image Capture - Level 1
* Friday 2nd November 2007, Bristol
Image Capture - Level 2
* Wednesday 14th November 2007, Bristol
Image Capture - Level 3
* Thursday 15th November 2007, Bristol
Introduction to Image Metadata
* Friday 23rd November 2007, Bristol
Image Optimisation - Correcting and Preparing Images
* Friday 30th November 2007, Bristol
Building a Departmental Image Collection
* Tuesday 4th December 2007, Bristol
Scanning from Print
* Thursday 13th December 2007, Bristol
Photoshop - Level 1
* Friday 14th December 2007, Bristol
Photoshop - Level 2
Full details and the online booking form can be found on the Training page: http://www.tasi.ac.uk/training/
In addition to its training programme, TASI provides many resources on its Web site and a free helpdesk service for those within FE/HE: http://www.tasi.ac.uk/helpdesk.html
JISC Collections Workshop: Promoting and Embedding E-textbooks
14 September 2007
JISC Collections Office, London
http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/news_and_events/coll_events/etextbooks_workshop
This workshop will explore current promotional methods being utilised by librarians, publishers and aggregators to aid the embedding of monographs and e-textbooks into the learning environment of users.
It will provide an opportunity for librarians to discuss their role in promotion, to share ideas for future strategies and tools that harness Web 2.0 technologies and to identify the core issues that they would like publishers, aggregators and JISC Collections to tackle to ensure that monographs and e-textbooks are being fully embedding in their institutions.
A series of case studies will be presented in the morning, followed by break out sessions in the afternoon. This workshop will take place at the JISC Collections office in London on Friday 14th September 2007.
Further details on this workshop can be found at http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/news_and_events/coll_events/etextbooks_workshop
To book your place at this workshop, please complete the online registration form at
http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/ebooks_workshop
or contact Jane Anthony at
j.anthony@jisc.ac.uk
Libraries Without Walls 7
Libraries Without Walls 7:Exploring 'anytime, anywhere' delivery of library services
14-18 September 2007
Aegean Island of Lesvos, Greece
http://www.cerlim.ac.uk/conf/lww7/
In 2007 LWWW7 wishes to encourage the widest possible range of papers to reflect the diverse current developments in library service delivery. It is anticipated that papers may cover:
- New kinds of service, especially those which open up new paradigms of 'library' - perhaps the library equivalent of YouTube or MySpace?
- Papers which describe the library's role within new models of scholarly publishing, including experience of developing services based on institutional or other repositories, and papers examining the responsibility of the library for digital curation.
- Service delivery in challenging environments, especially where the infrastructure may be sub-optimal as in some developing countries, or where the user group represents particular challenges.
- New technological solutions, provided these are presented to illustrate the impact on users of the improved services they make possible
- Delivery and assessment of information skills/literacies, especially where this is achieved through electronic environments.
11th European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries
16-21 September 2007
Budapest, Hungary
http://www.ecdl2007.org
This unique and well-established series brings together researchers, developers and practitioners working in various disciplines and related areas of digital libraries all over the world, providing a meeting point for the library, Web and DL communities. The conference will consist of a three days technical programme, preceded by a tutorial day and followed by workshops. The technical program will include refereed paper presentations, plenary sessions, panels and poster sessions.
ECDL 2007 will be devoted to discussions about hot issues and applications and will primarily provide a forum to reinforce the collaboration of researchers and practitioners in the following topics: Ontologies, Digital libraries and the Web, Models, Multimedia and Multilingual Digital Libraries, Grid and Peer-to-Peer, Preservation, User Interfaces, Document Linking, Information Retrieval, Personal Information Management, New DL Applications, and User Studies.
The corresponding tutorials will provide further in-depth looks at areas of current interest, including Thesauri and Ontologies, DL Education, Large Scale Digital Library Infrastructures, Sharing Content, Services and Computing Resources.
The Workshops, covering wide areas of interest, to be held in conjunction with ECDL2007, on September 20-21, are still open for contributions.
- CLEF 2007 - Cross language Evaluation Forum
- Workshop on "Foundations of Digital Libraries"
- DLSci 2007 - Digital Library Goes e-Science
- LADL 2007 - Cross-Media and Personalized Learning Applications on top of Digital Libraries
- Curriculum Development in Digital Libraries: An Exercise in Developing Lesson Plans
- Towards an European repository ecology: conceptualising interactionsbetween n etworks of repositories and services
- Networked Knowledge Organization Systems and Services
- Libraries in the Digital Age: What If?
Registration and programme details are available at: http://www.ecdl2007.org/
Folksonomy: A look at a hated word but a loved resource
Address by Thomas Vander Wal
18 September 2007, 14.00-15.30
Room 0.01, Clephan Building, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK LE1 9BH
Free and open to the public.
http://www.ioct.dmu.ac.uk/tnn/vanderwal07.htm
"Folksonomy" was recently voted one of the new terms most likely to make you 'wince, shudder or want to bang your head on the keyboard.' This talk by the inventor of the term - Thomas Vander Wal - will offer you a chance to make your own judgment. The talk is open to all and will not require any specialist knowledge on behalf of the audience.
A Folksonomy can be created when users of 'Web 2.0' sites such as YouTube, Flickr, LastFM and Del.icio.us add keywords ('tags') to the items they view in order to add information about these items. As more and more users tags such items more information is created about the the items. Unlike library catalogues which are created by experts, folksonomies are like catalogues created by everyday people. For some, this heralds a brave new era of democratic information management, for others it heralds the death of expertise.
Thomas Vander Wal lives in Bethesda, Maryland, and this is a rare opportunity to hear him in the UK. He coined the term 'folksonomy' in 2004 and is a popular speaker on tagging/folksonomy, social Web, and Web applications around well structured information. He is principal, and senior consultant at InfoCloud Solutions, a social Web consulting firm. Thomas has been working professionally on the Web since 1995 (with a professional IT background beginning in 1988) and has breadth and depth across many roles and disciplines around Web design, social Web development & research and general Web development. He is a member of the Web Standards Project Steering Committee and helped found the Information Architecture Institute and Boxes & Arrows Web Magazine. See his Web site to find out more: http://www.vanderwal.net/
The lecture is presented as part of the AHRC-funded research project Tags Networks Narratives, examining the interdisciplinary application of experimental social software to the study of narrative in digital contexts. It is a unique speculative project assessing the potential for collaborative social-software techniques such as folksonomy in narrative research. The project explores:
- What kinds of collaborative social network tools are available for the gathering and classification of information?
- Which researchers are making online narratives the focus of study, and how are those projects categorised by discipline?
- How can these researchers make effective use of social network tools to share knowledge and develop interdisciplinary collaborations?
The project is based in the Institute of Creative Technologies (IOCT) at De Montfort University, Leicester UK and is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board from October 2006-September 2007. The project team consists of Professor Sue Thomas, Bruce Mason and Simon Mills.
The talk is organised in partnership with Production and Research in Transliteracy group http://www.transliteracy.com
For more information and directions to the venue visit http://www.ioct.dmu.ac.uk/tnn/vanderwal07.htm
For enquiries contact Bruce Mason bmason01@dmu.ac.uk
Librarian@2010
International Conference Librarian@2010 - Educating for the Future
19-21 September 2007
Lisbon, Portugal
http://www.apbad.pt/Librarian@2010/Librarian@2010.htm
EBLIDA (European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations), EUCLID (the European Association for Library and Information Education and Research) and the BAD (the Portuguese Association of Librarians, Archivists and Documentalists) have announced their first joint conference to be held in Lisbon, Portugal (Auditorium of the Direção-Geral de Arquivos Alameda da Universidade 1649-010 Lisboa, Portugal) from the 19-21 September 2007.
Second International Conference on Digital Information Management (ICDIM 2007)
ICDIM 2007
28-31 October 2007
INSA-Lyon, France
http://icdim.insa-lyon.fr
The Second International Conference on Digital Information Management ICDIM 2007 is sponsored by the Engineering Management Society of IEEE and in Cooperation with ACM SIGAPP.
The International Conference on Digital Information Management is a multidisciplinary conference on digital information management, science and technology. The principal aim of this conference is to bring people from academia, research laboratories and industry and offer a collaborative platform to address the emerging issues and solutions in digital information science and technology. The ICDIM will address a large number of themes and issues. The conference invites original research and industrial papers on the theory, design and implementation of digital information systems, as well as proposals for demonstrations, tutorials, workshops and industrial presentations.
Papers are published by IEEE and fully indexed by IEEE Xplore.
The second edition of the ICDIM Conference will be hosted by the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon (INSA-Lyon) over 28-31 October 2007.
TEI@20
The Text Encoding Initiative Members' Meeting: 20 Years of Supporting the Digital Humanities
31 October - 3 November 2007
University of Maryland, College Park
Pre-conference workshops: 31 October 2007
TEI conference: 1-2 November 2007
Business meeting: 3 November 2007
http://www.lib.umd.edu/dcr/events/teiconference/
You are invited to come to the annual showcase of all things TEI. The meeting includes:
- the launch of TEI P5
- a full programme of invited speakers, panels, roundtable discussion
- special interest group sessions
- TEI business meeting and elections.
There will also be a day of pre-meeting training workshops (see Web site below for details).
Conference papers will be published by LLC: The Journal of Digital Scholarship in the Humanities
.
The meeting will be held at the University of Maryland Libraries, University of Maryland, College Park, just outside Washington, D.C.
The event is open to all and free of charge for TEI Consortium institutional members, subscribers and invited guests. Others will be charged $75, which entitles you to conference admission and subscriber benefits for the remainder of the calendar year.
For programme details , registration, hotel, and travel information, please visit the conference Web site: http://www.lib.umd.edu/dcr/events/teiconference/
Conference Announcement: Tools and Trends
International Conference on Digital Preservation at the occasion of the retirement of Johan Steenbakkers
1-2 November 2007
The Hague, the Netherlands
Organized by The Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands
http://www.kb.nl/nieuws/2007/toolstrends-en.html
On 1 and 2 November 2007, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands, KB) is holding an international conference on digital preservation. The conference is organised at the occasion of the retirement of Johan Steenbakkers, the KB's director of e-Strategy. Tools and Trends will feature international speakers who will present newest developments of Tools for digital preservation and the latest Trends in long-term archiving.
The Programme
Thursday 1 November will focus on Tools in digital preservation. To ensure future access to our digital heritage, long-term storage is just the first step. Acquisition, selection, appraisal, description, maintenance, retrieval and representation of digital objects are all aspects of the process of digital resource management. Organisations that have the responsibility for the curation of digital material need tools that allow them to set up their preservation workflow. Current projects are working on the development of these tools and procedures and will present their work at Tools and Trends. Sessions will focus on characterization of digital objects, on preservation action (migration, emulation) and preservation planning. Projects that will present their practical developments include PLANETS and CASPAR.
Friday 2 November will be dedicated to Trends in digital archiving. With enormous speed, all types of communication and information have become digital. Different digital collections require different forms of curation and may also require different preservation levels. Tools and Trends has invited international experts to answer the question: What are the latest trends in long-term preservation of web resources, e-publications, scientific data and archival records? And, looking forward: How can we set-up and maintain links between digital collections, what are the similarities and differences in preserving different kinds of digital materials and how do different sectors collaborate and divide responsibilities?
Everyone involved and interested in digital preservation is invited to participate in Tools and Trends. For more information on the conference, please contact
Shirley van Maren shirley.vanmaren@kb.nl
and for more information on the programme, please contact
Hilde van Wijngaarden, Head Digital Preservation Department of the KB
hilde.vanwijngaarden@kb.nl
3rd Annual International Conference on the Universal Digital Library
2-4 November 2007
Carnegie Mellon University,Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
http://tera-3.ul.cs.cmu.edu/icudl2007/
ICUDL 2007 is the third in a series of International Conferences on the Universal Digital Library. The theme of this year;s conference, "Legal, policy, technical, commercial and human factor challenges to a globally owned universal digital library" continues the work of the themes and decisions of the previous ICUDLs.
The conference will add to the foundational knowledge of the Universal Digital Library (UDL) that will be a portal to foster creativity and free access to all human knowledge. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Million Book Project (MBP) is considered a first milestone towards building this digital library with a free-to-read, searchable collection of one million books in various languages belonging to diversified cultures and civilizations available to people worldwide over the Internet. The annual workshop for the MBP will thus be held in conjunction with the conference.
The meeting will include a number of invited speakers, many contributed papers and presentations, some of which will be subsequently published in international journals, and an opportunity to meet digital library advocates from Australia, China, Egypt, India, and other countries.
UKeiG Course on Effective Business Research Practice
You Want What? Effective business research processes, principles and practices
7 November 2007, 09.45 - 16.30
CILIP, 7 Ridgmount Street, London, WC1E 7AE
Workshop Outline
Is there ever a method to the madness of researching business information? Could the implementation of a basic research process help with your technique? This one-day course will help new and developing information professionals answer these questions, discuss business research skills and techniques, and work through practical case study examples.
Sessions will include:
- The business information professional - roles and skills
- Effective business research process techniques
- Opportunities to add value: is the data enough?
Practical project/case examples will be conducted covering such areas as:
- Negotiating with difficult people and dealing with changing circumstances
- What happens if it all goes wrong
- Time planning
- Source planning
- Searching tools and techniques
- Adding value to the basic request
- Current awareness
- Relationship management
By the end of the course delegates will have learnt:
- Roles and skills for the information professional
- What is business research? There's more to it than just searching databases
- Steps and techniques in the business research process
Course Presenter
Jill Fenton is the Founder and a Director of Fenton Research Ltd, a London-based research company providing high quality, tailored research and advice to help clients achieve their business goals. Jill has over 10 years of professional business research experience. Her career includes research management and analyst positions at Deloitte & Touche LLP, Boston Consulting Group and Mercer Oliver Wyman. She also holds an Honours Degree in Information Management from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. Jill is a committee member of the City Information Group and a member of the Association of Independent Information Professionals. She has had several research related articles published and presented seminars at Online Information 2006.
Costs (including lunch and refreshments):
UKeiG members £130 + VAT (£152.75); others £160 + VAT (£188.00)
Registration by 1 November 2007.
For more information contact:
Christine Baker
Tel & Fax 01969 625751
Email: cabaker@ukeig.org.uk
Leading Archives and Museums
Due to the tremendous success of Leading Archives and Museums programme last year, Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) is delighted to announce that further programmes will run in 2007-08.
Leading Archives and Museums has been commissioned by MLA as part of its Workforce Development Strategy, with full support from: the Museums Association; the Society of Archivists; the National Archives; the Institute of Conservation and the National Museum Directors' Conference. It is also supported by Lifelong Learning UK and the Creative and Cultural Sector Skills Council.
The following two programmes are scheduled for 2007-08:
1. Future Leaders Programme for aspiring leaders will take place in the Midlands on the following dates:
Module 1: 4/5/6 December 2007
Module 2: 6/7 February 2008
2. Senior Managers Programme for mid-career managers will take place in the South of England on the following dates:
Module 1: 27/28 November 2007
Module 2: 29 January 2008
Module 3: 27/28 February 2008
(Please note there will be an additional Senior Managers Programme scheduled for early 2008.)
If you would like to attend either programme, please contact FPM Training on 08702 406 206 or http://www.fpmonline.co.uk/LAM.htm as soon as possible as demand for places will be very high.
Oxford Online Library Champion Awards 2007
Are you a library champion for online resources?
MLA and Oxford University Press are seeking nominations for the Oxford Online Library Champion Awards 2007, which will recognise public librarians' work in promoting Oxford Online resources. Over 97% of public libraries in England are now offering 24x7 access to these prestigious resources. Categories for nominations include:
- Oxford Online Library Champion of the Year
- Best overall strategy to promote awareness of Oxford Online resources
- Best Web site promotion
- Most effective staff training
Prizes include a two-night luxury stay for two in Oxford, lunch at the Printer's House of OUP, individual tour of OUP Museum and the Bodleian Library, copy of the new edition of the leather-bound Shorter Oxford English Dictionary; and perpetual access to five Oxford Digital Reference Shelf products.
Nominate at: http://www.oup.com/online/mla/awards/ before the closing date of 30 October 2007.
[Source: MLA]
[Received: August 2007]
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New Internet tutorials for Health and Life Sciences from Intute
Intute has just released three new FREE Internet tutorials for the Health and Life Sciences in the Virtual Training Suite. The tutorials teach Internet research skills for university students and are ideal for use in undergraduate courses:
1. Internet for Dentistry and Oral Health
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/dentist
By Claire McCarthy, Lecturer in Dental Hygiene & Research Hygienist, The Dental Institute, Kings College London and Laurian Williamson, Content Coordinator, Intute: Health and Life Sciences, University of Nottingham
2. Internet Pharmacist
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/pharmacist
By Robert Abbott, an information scientist based at Intute: Health and Life Sciences, University of Nottingham, building on the original tutorial by Fawz Farhan, Editorial Director, Mediapharm, consultant to HEA Health Sciences and Practice, and visiting lecturer in pharmacy practice at King's College London
3. Internet for Allied Health
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/allied
By David Brunt, Intute Service Officer for Nursing, Midwifery & Allied Health, University of Nottingham and Nicola Smart, former Service Officer, Intute Health and Life Sciences, University of Nottingham.
The tutorials offer advice on using the Internet for research for university work, offering a guide to some of the key academic websites for the subject, advice on Internet searching and on critical evaluation of information found on the Internet. "Success Stories" in each tutorial illustrate how the Internet can be used effectively to support education and research.
All the tutorials can be accessed free on the Web as part of the JISC-funded Intute service. Intute Virtual Training Suite: http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk
[Source: Intute]
[Received: July 2007]
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Blackwell Book Services collaborates with OCLC WorldCat Selection Service
Blackwell Book Services is working with OCLC and its WorldCat Selection service to provide customers with a new workflow.
The WorldCat Selection service helps libraries that use several book suppliers streamline selection and ordering and delivers the corresponding WorldCat records to the library system. Selectors can review notification slips from many suppliers in WorldCat Selection, saving them the trouble of learning to manipulate several supplier systems.
For those libraries that wish to take advantage of both WorldCat Selection and Blackwell Collection manager, a planned link from WorldCat Selection records to related titles in Collection Manager will consolidate all information needed to make informed selection decisions. Collection Manager can augment the selection and ordering process with additional information such as tables of contents and when available, ebook previews. OCLC and Cornell University Library staff have worked together to develop the WorldCat Selection service which is based on software known as the Integrated Tool for Selection and Ordering at Cornell University Library (ITSO CUL).
[Source: Blackwell/OCLC]
[Received: July 2007]
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Cash boost to our scientific and technological past
32 grants totalling £237,000 have been awarded in the past year to help museums to acquire and conserve items of outstanding scientific or industrial importance.
Managed by The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), the PReservation of Industrial and Scientific Material (PRISM) Grant Fund awards up to £250,000 each year to museums and other heritage-based organisations in England and Wales. The list of objects that have received funding in 2006/07 demonstrates an eclectic mix, including:
* £12,735 (the largest acquisition grant) to Yorkshire Museum for the purchase of a collection of fluorite gemstones.
* £20,000 to the Lydia Eva and Mincarlo Charitable Trust for the conservation of the 'Lydia Eva', the last surviving steam herring drifter in the UK, based in Lowestoft.
* £20,000 to Beamish Open Air Museum for the conservation of a steam locomotive
* £5,000 towards the purchase of a 19th century diving suit by Southampton Maritime Museum
There is a new PRISM Grant Fund logo available to download from the Web site for recipients of funding to use in their promotional material.
For a full report of PRISM awards 2006/2007 please visit the PRISM section of the MLA Web site.
[Source: MLA]
[Received: August 2007]
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DCC Blawg
DCC Blawg, the Legal Blog of the UK's Digital Curation Centre has begun covering all manner of issues relating to digital information and the law including data sharing, intellectual property, licensing, access, copyright, data protection, freedom of information and privacy, to name but a few.
Readers with an interest in issues relating to the curation and long-term preservation of digital science and research data may also wish to view the Digital Curation Blog, also produced by the Digital Curation Centre.
DCC Blawg: http://dccblawg.blogspot.com/
Digital Curation Blog: http://digitalcuration.blogspot.com/
[Source: DCC]
[Received: June 2007]
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UnityUK data improvement programme to be rolled out
OCLC PICA, in partnership with The Combined Regions (TCR), has completed the roll-out of phase one of a series of enhancements that improve the quality and the breadth of data available through the UnityUK national resource sharing service. The first phase of data enhancements has been carried out by OCLC PICA in response to feedback from users and the next phase is due to begin in summer 2007.
The data enhancement programme consists of three key strands. First, the data that was imported from the former UnityWeb service has been cleaned. Records have been de-duplicated, in one case, a single ISBN was present no less than 40 times. Furthermore, non-existing items were removed and (where necessary) data within each record has been moved to the appropriate MARC field. As a result of this project, in excess of 3,300,000 records have had their data made more consistent with MARC rules.
The second development strand integrates the catalogues and holdings information from the four main locations providing resources for the visually impaired. Inclusion of these catalogues brings a unique aspect to the UnityUK union catalogue. Data from the catalogues of the Royal National Institute for the Blind, National Library for the Blind, CALIBRE and The Torch Trust will be loaded into UnityUK.
Pat Beech, Manager RNIB National Library Service, explains the significance of the move, "Adding collection information from Revealweb to the Unity UK service is a real step forward for blind and partially sighted people as it will make it easier for them to use mainstream libraries. This project is an excellent example of what can be achieved when public libraries and the voluntary sector work together." Finally, the development programme addresses the quality and depth of holdings records within the service. Complete database loads have been carried out for around 70 UnityUK member libraries and 8 million high quality BL records, with holdings, will be loaded over the summer 2007.
For further information:
OCLC PICA http://www.oclcpica.org/
UnityUK http://www.unity-uk.com/
Revealweb http://www.revealweb.org.uk/
[Source: TheAnswer Ltd/OCLC PICA]
[Received: July 2007]
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MLA invites applications to 'Their Past Your Future 2'
The Museums Libraries Archives (MLA) Partnership is launching an extension to the highly successful Big Lottery-funded 'Their Past Your Future' Programme. The MLA would like museums, libraries and archives to apply for funding for projects that will form phase two of the Programme.
In this second phase lasting from 2007-10, MLA will manage an annual funding programme offering grants of between £500 - £10,000 to museum, libraries and archives in England. Organisations may use this funding to develop programmes, workshops, exhibitions and events which promote understanding of the impact of conflict.
Organisations may apply for grants focusing on two areas: work with children and young people and inter-generational learning. The closing date for applications for the first year of the programme is 19 October 2007. Further details of the 'Their Past Your Future 2' initiative are available from regional MLA agencies.
A series of regional seminars will be held to offer advice for staff from museums, libraries and archives who are developing applications to the funding programme.
Confirmed dates are:
MLA East Midlands - 13 September 2007
MLA East of England - 26 September 2007
MLA London and MLA South East - 25 September 2007
MLA North West - 18 September 2007
MLA West Midlands - 12 September 2007
Further information about the grant scheme, application guidance and forms may be downloaded from http://www.mla.gov.uk/website/aboutus/grants
[Source: MLA]
[Received: August 2007]
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Fedora Commons Announces $4.9m Grant
Fedora Commons today announced the award of a 4-year $4.9m grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to develop the organisational and technical frameworks necessary to effect revolutionary change in how scientists, scholars, museums, libraries, and educators collaborate to produce, share, and preserve their digital intellectual creations. Fedora Commons is a new non-profit organisation that will continue the mission of the Fedora Project, the successful open source software collaboration between Cornell University and the University of Virginia. The Fedora Project evolved from the Flexible Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture (Fedora) developed by researchers at Cornell Computing and Information Science.
With this funding, Fedora Commons will foster an open community to support the development and deployment of open source software, which facilitates open collaboration and open access to scholarly, scientific, cultural, and educational materials in digital form. The software platform developed by Fedora Commons with Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation funding will support a networked model of intellectual activity, whereby scientists, scholars, teachers, and students will use the Internet to collaboratively create new ideas, and build on, annotate, and refine the ideas of their colleagues worldwide. With its roots in the Fedora open source repository system, developed since 2001 with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the new software will continue to focus on the integrity and longevity of the intellectual products that underlie this new form of knowledge work. The result will be an open source software platform that both enables collaborative models of information creation and sharing, and provides sustainable repositories to secure the digital materials that constitute our intellectual, scientific, and cultural history.
Recognising the importance of multiple participants in the development of new technologies to support this vision, the Moore Foundation funding will also support the growth and diversification of the Fedora Community, a global set of partners who will co-operate in software development, application deployment, and community outreach for Fedora Commons. This network of partners will be instrumental in making Fedora Commons a self-sustainable non-profit organisation that will support and incubate open source software projects that focus on new mechanisms for information formation, access, collaboration, and preservation.
Fedora Commons http://www.fedora-commons.org
[Source: Fedora Commons]
[Received: August 2007]
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